Event Management During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t just disrupt research and teaching at TUK. Special events, too, could not be held as planned due to the current situation. Ironically, in TUK’s anniversary year, numerous special events had to be rescheduled or, in the worst cases, canceled entirely.

Since January 2019, the Department of Administration (Z.2) and TUK’s own proCampus GmbH have been jointly managing events. As part of this new process, the services offered to TUK’s departments and central units were expanded—in addition to the existing services provided by Event Safety and Technology (VAST) and Event Administration and Room Management (VARM)—to include the area of event organization (VAO)—handled by proCampus GmbH—and made available centrally. This allows event organizers to delegate organizational tasks related to their events and focus primarily on the content and guests. It is also possible to sell tickets for meetings and conferences through proCampus’s own web shop, which supports electronic payment via PayPal and credit card. “The feedback from the departments and central units has been overwhelmingly positive. We didn’t have time to promote the newly designed process for special events ourselves because we were swamped with requests. We never would have expected that at the beginning,” reports Manuela Schmidt, deputy managing director of proCampus. Last year alone, over 450 special events were registered and processed through the new system.

However, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of special events had to be rescheduled or canceled entirely. “The uncertain situation at the beginning made planning events extremely difficult, but thanks to the close cooperation of everyone involved, we were able to quickly develop an internal ‘COVID-19 process’ and implement it effectively,” says Verena Bläser, head of the Z.2 Campus Management department.

Providing a safe and sustainable program is very important to everyone responsible for event management. To that end, individual staff members underwent intensive training in the areas of hygiene and safety measures for events during a two-day online seminar. Simone Müller from the Event Safety and Technology (VAST) department explains: “It quickly became clear to us that we had to prepare for the new situation. Event organizers should continue to rely on our expertise and be able to plan their events without worry.”

Digital or so-called hybrid event formats are currently in ever-increasing demand, as they offer the advantage of being able to take place (relatively) independently of developments in the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re all still in the process of learning what technical and organizational challenges need to be overcome when it comes to digital and hybrid events. That’s why we’re continuously adapting our process to the new circumstances. Recently, colleagues from the e-Teaching Service Center have also been involved in consultations with event organizers and in the planning process for digital and hybrid events,” explains Julia Germann, Managing Director of proCampus.

Since mid-September—depending on the applicable regulations and ordinances—special in-person events have also been allowed to take place again. These currently require approval, which is automatically requested when a special event is registered. “To approve an in-person special event, it’s important that the organizers briefly and concisely explain the planned hygiene measures to us and outline how they will implement the applicable hygiene and social distancing rules,” says Simone Müller, explaining the recently introduced approval process. “But even after approval has been granted, there is sometimes a degree of uncertainty in planning right up until the scheduled date of the event. If the current situation changes—as it has now in early November—we unfortunately have to cancel even previously approved events or switch them to digital formats,” adds Manuela Schmidt, summarizing the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose.
As before, the notification form for a special event must be completed and submitted no later than eight weeks before the event begins. If the special event can be approved, the event organization staff will respond promptly to schedule a consultation appointment. Here, proCampus, together with the event safety and technical team—as well as the e-Teaching Service Center and the event administration and room management teams, if necessary—provides information about the full range of services offered by TUK Event Management. “This way, we can easily clarify to what extent and in which areas we can provide support,” says Verena Bläser. Especially with the newly created event organization service—managed by proCampus—event organizers can either draw on the entire portfolio or book specific individual services. “Our basic services are free of charge for TUK’s departments, central units, and administration,” adds Manuela Schmidt. “Of course, the current situation presents us all with unique challenges and makes organization more complex in many areas. However, we hope to be able to find solutions—together with the event organizers, as far as possible—for holding special events,” emphasize Verena Bläser and Manuela Schmidt.

Event management will also play a significant role in the merger of the Technical University of Kaiserslautern with the University of Landau. Verena Bläser reports that there is already considerable interest in integrating parts of our event management process into Landau’s structures: “This offers us a unique opportunity to further develop the process together and also to benefit from the experience of our colleagues in Landau.”

In any case, an exciting time lies ahead for the TUK’s event management team, with many challenges and new opportunities for development.